Helen A. Papaioanou ’49 Distinguished Alumni Service Award

Inaugurated in 1981,The Helen A. Papaioanou ’49 Distinguished Alumni Service Award celebrates service to Bates that is truly distinguished in both quantity and quality. Historically known as the Distinguished Alumni Service Award, the 1999 award was renamed the Helen A. Papaioanou Distinguished Alumni Service Award, to honor Helen Papaioanou, M.D., Class of 1949, for her decades of service to Bates and to the Board of Trustees from 1965 to 1999.

In 2019, President Clayton Spencer presented the award to Rachel Harper Garcelon ’62 during Reunion.

Rae Garcelon is described as the glue that has kept the Class of 1962 informed and engaged. She has served the college both as a valued employee and as an impactful volunteer. She first worked in the Alumni Office as the Alumni Director from 1984-1994 prior to switching over to the Development Office where she led a capital campaign as a Major Gifts Officer. After retiring from Bates, Rae started a successful business, The Good Wife, helping elderly women remain in their homes. She credits her time at Bates for keeping her mind and body active and living out life to the fullest. An avid exercise enthusiast and traveler, Rae is upbeat, adventurous and fully engaged in all that she undertakes.

In addition to her contributions as an employee of the college, Rae has volunteered repeatedly and tirelessly as a class officer, Alumni Council member and Reunion committee chair. In 2017, she spearheaded the Reunion committee to ensure that the Class of 1962 celebrated its 55th Reunion in grand style. Her devotion and commitment to the college is reflected in the enthusiasm and high attendance of class members at Reunion gatherings. Friends recount how Bates is her love and how she has always been present and engaged with the college, both as a student and alumna: as one former classmate puts it, “she is not just a person of our class, but the highlight of our class.”

Rae, you have truly gone above and beyond for Bates, and your hard work and commitment is widely known and appreciated. The Helen A. Papaioanou Award recognizes truly distinguished service to the college, both in terms of quantity and quality. It is only fitting then, that the Alumni Association and the college present you with this award for your many years of dedicated and exceptional service.

In 2018, Eric Foushee presented the award to Keith Harvie ’67 during Back to Bates: Homecoming and Family Weekend.

Keith Harvie’s contributions to Bates are both numerous and far-reaching. This is demonstrated in part by the dozens of award nominations submitted by his peers, all of which heartily attest to his outstanding leadership and commitment.

As class president, Keith has dedicated himself to keeping classmates connected to each other and to the college. In 2014, he introduced the “’67 Rendezvous,” which has since become an annual event. These informal gatherings have resulted in the renewal of old friendships, and the creation of new bonds. A fellow class member notes that the events, “remind us all why Bates is so important in our lives, and why it will remain important in the future.”

A driving force behind his class’s successful 50th Reunion in 2017, Keith pulled together an extraordinary team of volunteers for the endeavor. He turned planning meetings into not-to-be-missed experiences, and employed an inclusive and humorous style of communication and leadership that resulted in broad participation and attendance for the milestone event.

Keith has also been a catalyst for the project to honor Bates veterans on campus. Collaborating with staff and alumni, he helped develop a plan to both recognize those who’ve served and to memorialize the lives that have been lost. His passionate and thoughtful approach to this several years’ long initiative is truly inspiring.

An innovator and an effective leader, Keith’s tireless efforts to promote camaraderie and connection within the Bates community will continue to have a long-lasting impact on the college. For his dedication and exemplary service to Bates, it is my great pleasure to present the Helen A. Papaioanou ’49 Distinguished Alumni Service Award to Keith Harvie, Class of 1967.

On June 10, 2017, President A. Clayton Spencer presented the award to Judith A. Marden’66.

As you may know, this award is given in recognition for both quantity and quality of alumni service. Judy, you have more than met the standard. For 55 years and counting — as a student, a loyal college employee, and a tireless volunteer — you have done everything Bates and the state of Maine have asked of you.

In the employ of the college, Judy was a highly skilled utility player, serving at various times as a development researcher, acting director of development, business manager, liaison officer for college functions — a role in which she administered large Bates events like Commencement and Parents and Family Weekend — and personnel director, the equivalent of today’s head of human resources.

But she saved her favorite position at Bates for last — director of the Bates–Morse Mountain Conservation Area, which comprises 600 acres of woods, salt marsh, and Maine’s last undeveloped barrier beach. For those of you who aren’t familiar with this coastal treasure near Phippsburg, the Bates–Morse Mountain Conservation Area is a nursery for juvenile fish, a haven for rare plants and birds, and a peaceful sanctuary for all. Largely thanks to Judy’s early planning for what has become an iconic example of Bates’ environmental work, it remains one of the most beautiful, unspoiled parts of Maine.

Working with a complex oversight board, made up of members from the St. John family, which deeded the land, Bates, and the public — with environmental easements held by the Nature Conservancy and active involvement from state and federal government agencies — Judy crafted the original structure of policies that continue to guide how the land can be used for research and an environmental preserve.

As with any preserve, especially one as gorgeous as Bates–Morse Mountain, the danger is that it can be loved to death. To make sure that doesn’t happen, Judy has struck a careful balance between preservation and access for its 20,000 annual visitors who hike in for stunning views as well as multiple forms of research. As an example of the work being done there, our own Professor Bev Johnson in the Geology Department is researching the amount of carbon stored in the preserve’s tidal marshes, as well as the environmental outcomes if the tidal marshes are flooded by rising sea levels and that carbon is released.

And that’s but one example of Judy’s service. She’s also chaired the Androscoggin Land Trust, for which she has put 200 acres of forest around her home in nearby Greene into perpetual conservation protection. Even in retirement, she continues to serve as a beloved and highly engaged advisor to the Bates Outing Club. As many of you know, she’s hard at work with students and Outing Club alumni, planning for the organization’s centennial celebration in 2020.

Judy, with your record of contributions to Bates — as a dedicated employee and member of the College Key and your Reunion Committee — it is my great honor to present you with this year’s Helen A. Papaioanou ’49 Distinguished Alumni Service Award.

On June 11, 2016, President A. Clayton Spencer presented the award to Leigh P. Campbell ’64.

If you ask alumni from the mid-1970s to the early-2000s about their Bates experience, you’ll hear a constant refrain: “My family and I wouldn’t have been able to afford college without Leigh Campbell. He made Bates possible.”

In his 39 years of service as a financial aid officer at Bates, most of that time as director, Leigh became a trusted confidant, adviser, and friend to thousands of students. With precision and foresight, he was a careful steward of the college’s annual multi-million-dollar aid budgets. With compassion and integrity, he helped students and their families sort out their finances in pursuit of aid packages that met the need.

Many of you know firsthand Leigh’s ability to find a solution — a scholarship, a loan, or a work-study job — that kept you and your friends at Bates. As a testament to the gratitude for his help and friendship, Leigh probably has been invited to more Bates weddings than any living alumnus. And as the official scorer of the men’s basketball team since his return to Bates in 1973 — from military service in Vietnam and a stint in the private sector — Leigh has probably also attended more games than anyone else. It’s no wonder that at a 2004 men’s basketball reunion, alumni honored him as their “No. 1 supporter and friend.”

That’s how many of you — especially those of you who received financial aid — think of Leigh: your No. 1 Bates supporter and friend.

Leigh, with your record of contributions to Bates — as a dedicated employee and member of the Mount David Society, the College Key, and your Reunion Committee — it is my great honor to present you with this year’s Helen A. Papaioanou ’49 Distinguished Alumni Service Award.